Woman accuses Cain of bold sexual advance

In this photo taken Oct. 31, 2011, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain answers questions at the National Press Club in Washington about sexual harassment allegations. Before his current troubles, Cain did not shy away from using race as a talking point, much to the consternation of liberal and independent blacks. In denying the allegations, he told FOX he thought his race influenced the decision to take the allegations public. "I believe the answer is yes, but we do not have any evidence to support it," he said.

Leaving little to the imagination, a Chicago-area woman on Monday accused Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain of making a crude sexual advance more than a decade ago when she was seeking his help finding a job.

NEW YORK — Leaving little to the imagination, a Chicago-area woman on Monday accused Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain of making a crude sexual advance more than a decade ago when she was seeking his help finding a job.

"Come clean," Sharon Bialek challenged Cain at a news conference in New York at which she described herself as "a face and a voice" to support other accusers who have so far remained anonymous.

Cain pointedly denied her charges late Monday and said he would fight the claims head-on at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Phoenix.

"There is not an ounce of truth to all these allegations," he said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" I'm going to set the record straight.

He said he got angry and disgusted as he watched the account he said was "totally fabricated." Bialek's nationally broadcast appearance on cable television marked a new and — for Cain — dangerous turn in a controversy that he has struggled for more than a week to shed. An upstart in the presidential race, Cain shot to the top of public opinion polls in recent weeks and emerged, however temporarily, as the main conservative challenger to Mitt Romney.

Accompanied by her prominent lawyer, Gloria Allred, Bialek accused Cain of making a sexual advance one night in mid-July 1997, when she had traveled to Washington to have dinner with him in hopes he could help her find work.

She said the two had finished dinner and were in a car for what she thought was a ride to an office building.

"Instead of going into the offices he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt toward my genitals," she said.

"He also pushed my head toward his crotch," she added.

Bialek said she told her boyfriend, an unidentified pediatrician, as well as a longtime male friend about the episode.

None of Cain's other accusers has provided details as graphic as Bialek's account. But Joel Bennett, an attorney who represents one of them, said her details were "similar in nature" to what his client encountered.

Allred, a prominent sex discrimination attorney with Democratic ties, moved preemptively to blunt any attacks on Bialek's motives. She described her client as a registered Republican, a single mother and a woman with a long and successful career.

She also said Bialek "could have attempted to sell her story but chose not to do so," and knew that by stepping forward, she would receive scrutiny.

Court records indicate Bialek had financial difficulties a decade ago when she filed for bankruptcy protection and reported $4,500 in unpaid rent and $13,000 in outstanding credit card bills.

Current property records show she owns a house on an acre of land in a Chicago suburb.

Some of Cain's allies immediately made a target of Allred, a Democratic campaign donor, rather than focusing any anger on Cain's accuser.

Georgia state Sen. Joshua McKoon, who has endorsed Cain, accused Allred of "carnival theatrics" fueled by a partisan agenda.

"Her involvement makes it clear that it's a political smear job orchestrated by those on the left because there is nothing more terrifying than Herman Cain as the Republican nominee," the Republican lawmaker said.

But Doug Heye, a political consultant who is unaligned in the GOP race, said Bialek's allegations "are different because they involve a name and specific details."

He said Allred's involvement "is going to make some people disbelieve the charges out of hand because of the sideshow she creates. But Herman Cain has to be clear and convincing in his response."